Chapter 24
Cillian
As Electra’s door bangs shut, my fingers ball into such tight fists that my knuckles crack.
What is it about this woman that makes me act unhinged? One second, I’m a decent man capable of polite conversation. The next, I warp into some caveman intent on claiming her.
I drag one of my shaking fists across my lips, trying to rid myself of her taste, but it only presses it deeper.
Screw your fucking head back on straight. This is only a game. Electra Serran is only a means to an end. A means you need to win over.
Now I’m fucking giving myself pep talks? How far I’ve fallen…
I draw both hands down my face, then grip the ridge of the island until my breathing levels out and my mind clears enough to decide on my next move.
Since waiting here for her is desperate and borderline stalkerish, I elect to leave. But first, I clean her kitchen, not only because it’s the decent thing to do, but also because that’s the way I was brought up. I might pretend to be another, but pieces of the real me make up Cillian’s personality.
I go after every surface with a scrub sponge until the edge wears off.By the time Electra’s kitchen sparkles, my gut has stopped swishing, and I’ve reached new levels of introspection.
For example, I’ve figured out the reason she gets under my skin—or rather,reasons. No woman has ever made me work this hard. Also, she’s unpredictable. One minute she’s pulling me in, and the next she’s inviting fucking Malachi Hadez to her place—duringourdate.
Here I thought I’d finally toppled him off his pedestal and taken his place, but clearly, I haven’t.
Clearly, I only saw what I wanted to see.
I try to recall his expression when he walked in. Was it jealousy? I’d felt so blindsided by his arrival that all I could perceive were my own emotions.
Thinking of Malachi kicks all that hard-won calm out of my bones. By the time I finally turn off the lights and let myself out, I’m more wound up than I was the night she went to his?—
Fuck.What if that’s where she ran off to? What if, at this very moment, she’s jumped into his arms and confessed it was all a game to get his attention, and he’s giving her his attention?
I feel like I just ate it in a video game, and the word “FAIL” is flashing on repeat.
I toss my gym bag on the passenger seat of the station wagon and just fucking sit there for several minutes, nostrils flaring, heart palpitating, temples throbbing.
Even if Electra went to Malachi’s house, it doesn’t mean anything physical is happening.
Her sexy dress develops on the back of my lids, along with the tight swells of her breasts and her toned, tanned legs. And those boots.
Fucking A, Electra in those boots…
My fingertips fill with her pebbling skin like she’s sitting on my lap and I’m tracing the crease beneath her tight ass. How I’ditched to touch more of her, to trace the edge of her underwear. To discover if she was wearing a thong, and if it was made out of lace or cotton. To learn if the fabric was soaked.
Blood swells my cock until I think it might just burst without any manual stimulation. I dare a man of the cloth not to rethink his vows if Electra stood before himlooking like that.
“Get a fucking grip on yourself, Reeve,” I mutter, staring at my lap and the bulge there.
Home.I need to get back to the camper and work Electra out of my system before my balls turn any bluer.
I finally jam the key in the ignition and throttle the steering wheel, lurching up the ramp of her underground garage, narrowly missing shredding my rims on the concrete edges. I have several other near misses—a bike, a curb, a bus. It doesn’t help that it’s pouring rain out, and my windshield wipers are more sluggish than a frat boy the day after a keg party.
How I make it to the gym in one piece is a miracle. I back the Volvo as far as it’ll go, then grab my bag and get out, slamming my door shut with so much force the whole vehicle rattles.
I’m about to storm into my camper to deal with the tension when someone steps out from behind it.
Chapter 25
Electra
